Changes could come to UND’s subsidized taxi service
April 21, 2012 at 2:00 am in Grand Forks Herald
Cab Crawler contractor’s vehicles taken off the road for various reasonsA subsidized taxi service that UND students depend on to fetch groceries or get sober rides home from the bars came to a screeching halt recently. Through a bizarre series of events, Red White and Blue Taxi Co., the taxi firm with the contract for the Cab Crawler service, has no taxis available crippling one of UND Student Government’s best-known services. Continue Reading
Here’s the nasty part students…..”The Grand Forks City Code requires the new owner to apply for a license with the finance department and have it approved by the City Council..”
We’ve seen what a stellar job the council has done with one business just recently……So lots of luck having anything before fall with this group…
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
29 
6
I wonder if there will be a dress code? Like no tank tops, women must wear bras, men can’t show their underwear…
Oh geez Tundra…now I’m being immature again.
Like or Dislike:
15 
10
The cabs are not allowed within 500 feet of a church or school.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
25 
6
Given the 19th century mindset of Grand Forks, I always thought it strange there wasn’t more of an uproar about a part of tuition going to pay for carting drunk students home.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
25 
10
Morneau out with a sore tootsie.
Like or Dislike:
7 
4
Typical. Who would maintain a cab? Run ‘em ’til they drop, buy another used junk car and paint it yellow. Or checker-board. Or whatever.
I’m glad I’m not a UND student. Their fees are so mis-spent it’s tragic.
Like or Dislike:
19 
7
Unfortunetly I’m not surprised. Taxis are a business, if they are busy they cannot drop what they are doing to go pick up a student. Part of the problem here is RWBs fleet was to small. There are better taxi company’s in town that could probably handle the load.
Like or Dislike:
11 
3
@schurkey. It’s not totally misspent in my eyes. Alot if students don’t have cars or licenses. This is a good and cheap way to get around town. However, just bad service by RWB.
Like or Dislike:
9 
5
The purpose was never “to get around town.” It was to get sober students from the dorms to the downtown bars, and bring back drunk students.
Like or Dislike:
17 
6
If you look at the ride logs, almost as many students are taking it to wal*mart and the mall as the bars. International students use it a lot for the other purposes.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
Whatever happened to that bar bus they tried? I’m guessing it was totally uncontrollable a lot of the time. When I first read about it I wondered how they’d get someone to drive that for very long….Between the dramas, fights, possibly sex, and trying to keep people from smuggling booze to drink on the way back…It sounded like hell on wheels to me….But I never heard anything about it after the initial article so I really don’t know…
Like or Dislike:
12 
2
The problem with RWB was a combination of not enough working vehicles and a management that was usually drunk and oblivious. The problem with Cab Crawler itself is that it wouldn’t matter if every cab in town participated in it, there would not be enough to get all the drunk students transported. The fact that it caters to the drunks but is paid for by all the students is more the pity.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
19 
4
Maybe its time for the bars to pay for the taxi rides? Why should the non-drinker students subsidize the drinkers? Especially the students under 21 that cannot legally drink alcohol anyway.
I do not drink myself, but walked 1/2 a mile yesterday along my road, picking up litter. Beer bottle, beer cans, go cups and the like.
Not too long ago, UND was rated high in alcohol use among its students. So this is how we reward the drinkers, is to subsidize their bar hopping???
Like or Dislike:
16 
5
Good points but….Back in the day people just drove themselves……Maybe it’s not quite right to have a service like this, but you don’t want a bunch of drunk 20 somethings drivng after last call either……
Like or Dislike:
12 
4
I wouldn’t live in nd without a car. This program does just encourage binge drinking by the students. Lets go downtown drink all we want and who cares because a cab ride home is $1
Like or Dislike:
7 
7
What are they going to need taxis for? No more University Street to drive ‘em on.
If it wasn’t for boneheads in the Grand Forks bureaucracy, the desks would be vacant.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1